For the time, Nell was thrown off her guard.
"I—I expected to meet my brother," she articulated. "He said nothing about you—a stranger—meeting me at the depot."
"No; and good reason why. He did not know when he wrote that it would be impossible for him to get to the depot. A slight accident——"
"Accident! Dyke injured? Then let me go to him at once," cried the impulsive girl, before the man could complete his sentence.
"It is not so very bad," said Mr. Sims, as he led the way to the walk without, and placed his fair charge on the cushions of a hack. Giving low instructions to the driver, he vaulted to the side of Nell Darrel, and the hack rattled away.
Nell sat flushed and silent for some minutes, her heart throbbing painfully.
"Tell me about it," she finally said to her companion. "How did it happen?"
"I can't give you the particulars, since they were not given to me," answered he. "I only know that Dyke met with a fall on the stone pavement, and Dr. Boneset says that his leg is broken. He is in considerable pain, but cheerful withal, and will be mighty glad to see Nell, as he calls you."
Again the man smiled in the face of the girl at his side, and up to this time no suspicion of the truth flashed upon her brain.
Although the hack moved rapidly, it seemed to the anxious girl a long time in reaching its destination.